Hasegawa F-4 Phantom II Eggplane

History? This is about as much of a caricature of an aircraft as anything around. If you want a history of the F-4, then try www.google.com.

What I can tell you is that these types of kits were initiated by Hasegawa some time in the 1970s. They disappeared from view for some time, but have recently made a resurgence and are being produced by other companies besides Hasegawa.

Generally, they are easy to build and offer fair fit and do not take up a lot of shelf space. I have even seen aftermarket decals for some subjects. They make a great change from the norm and are worth the effort of building.

Markings are for two planes. One from 302 Sq JASDF and the other from the 388 TFW in SEA camo. Neither marking option is specifically identified. You might also notice that there is no back-seater as any 'real' F-4 would have. Decals are the usual thick and semi-transparent Japanese stuff, but finding alternatives won't be easy. What has been added is a second smaller sheet with more accurate stencil markings for the USAF and JASDF versions. The painting guide is with the usual Gunze paints.

First thing one has to realize is that these are not the greatest fit and they do take a few liberties with reality (oh really?). For instance, the real Phantom II is not a single seater. One starts this by removing the bits from the sprues and cleaning them up. Sprue attachments are a bit large, but not huge. No need for weight as you glue the halves together, but you will have to clean up the seams and fill the hole in the bottom for the stand wire.

The wings are stubs and are attached to the fuselage. Fit is loose. Once dry, the landing gear were installed. The nose gear in particular had a very thick seam on the forward door. There is no nose or main well, the gear gluing right on the bottom of the wing. The main gear outer doors have large holes in them for the alignment pin. Main wheels are molded on the main gear but nose wheels are separate. The wings have holes for the pylons already drilled. These as well as the missiles and the outer main gear doors were left off until final assembly.

COLORS & MARKINGS

I chose the box art plane from 302 Squadron. The entire lower fuselage with the attached gear was painted white as was the tips of the stabilizers. This was then masked and the upper surface was given a coat of gloss light gull grey. The nose was masked off and painted black along with the anti-glare panel. For the interior, I broke out a brush and painted it dark gull grey. Pilot got a white helmet using Humbrol white acrylic and I used the black and grey for the rest of the cockpit. Much masking went on for the steel rear fuselage, inner horizontal stabs and the exhaust, which was also painted in Jet Exhaust. Masking the canopy was no easy task as the frame lines are rather indistinct after decades of repops.

I had no issues with the decals. Hasegawa included a more extensive set of stencils with this boxing and I used many of them. This took a while, though not as long as painting did. The last decal installed was the stab travel arrow. Then I attached the stabs, nose wheels, wing pylons and the missiles. These latter items had many ejector pin marks on them which, like pretty much all the parts, took time to clean up. The final bit was attaching the canopy which fits fairly well, but is not a tight fit.

As usual, I was foxed by a simple looking kit and it took longer to complete than I'd hoped. I also had a few issues with 'ghost seams' as I used standard filler for some, having run out of super glue and being too lazy to drive to town to get some more. These are not for everyone as the fidelity freaks will have a conniption fit as there is NOTHING accurate about it. But hey, 'it looks like a Phantom'. Sorta. 

25 August 2017

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